The National Tourism Secretariat of Paraguay (SENATUR) announced that Arajet confirmed the launch of its regular flights between Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Asunción, marking a milestone in the connectivity of the Paraguayan capital.
The agency indicated that the inaugural flight to Asunción is scheduled for November 5, 2023, and initially the low-cost will operate three weekly frequencies. For the moment, the tickets are not available for sale.
«This connectivity is due to joint efforts led by the President of DINAC, Felix Kanazawa; the National Chancellery and Minister Sofía Montiel de Afara, who in the past month of May, held a meeting with her counterpart, David Collado and authorities of the company«, pointed out the SENATUR.
Their arrival in the Paraguayan capital is a new and crucial step in Arajet’s deployment in South America and their goal to consolidate themselves as a low-cost North-South connectivity alternative in the American continent through the Las Americas International Airport in Santo Domingo.
Asunción will thus join San Paulo/Guarulhos, where it will land in September, and Barranquilla, Bogotá, Cali, Cartagena, Guayaquil, Lima, Medellín and Quito. In May, the Dominican low-cost also received authorization to fly from Santo Domingo to Buenos Aires/Ezeiza (EZE), Argentina; Montevideo (MVD), Uruguay; Santa Cruz de la Sierra (VVI), Bolivia; and Santiago (SCL), Chile, although they have not yet announced when these destinations would be launched.
Arajet will not only serve as a new option for the Paraguayan market, but also for the northeastern region of Argentina, whose inhabitants use the Asunción airport as an exit to foreign markets, usually obtaining cheaper fares than from Buenos Aires, in addition to the land transfer to the Paraguayan capital often being more convenient than the Aeroparque-Ezeiza transfer.
Arajet’s network in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean reaches Cancún, Curacao, Guatemala, Kingston, Mexico City, San Salvador, San Jose of Costa Rica, and St. Maarten. In October, it will also reach Toronto, Canada.
Arajet plans to end 2023 with double its current fleet, which consists of five Boeing 737 MAX 8 with a capacity for 185 passengers. However, it has made a request for 35 Boeing 737 MAX 8-200, the high-density version of the MAX that can accommodate up to 210 passengers.
Flights in Asunción
Regarding North-South inter-American connectivity, in Asunción, Arajet will compete with Copa Airlines, which operates 14 weekly flights from Panama City; Avianca, with 3 weekly flights from Bogotá; and LATAM, with 5 weekly flights from Lima, and 12 weekly flights from San Paulo/Guarulhos (it also operates 5 weekly flights from Santiago de Chile).
The international offer in the Paraguayan capital is completed with Aerolíneas Argentinas (10 weekly flights with Buenos Aires/Aeroparque); GOL (6 weekly flights with San Paulo/Guarulhos); Amaszonas (4 weekly flights with Santa Cruz de la Sierra); Air Europa (4 weekly flights with Madrid); JetSMART (5 weekly flights with Buenos Aires/Aeroparque); and Paranair (12 weekly flights with Buenos Aires, 11 weekly flights with Montevideo and 5 weekly flights with Santa Cruz de la Sierra).
